For those of who haven’t seen this video clip yet: police in paramilitary gear line up in front of a group of Occupy protesters peacefully assembled on a quad pathway. Completely unprovoked, police decide to douse the whole group of sitting protesters with pepper spray. There is crying and chaos and panic, but the wheezing protesters sit resolutely in place and refuse to move despite the assault.

Finally, in what to me is the most amazing part, the protesters gather together and move forward shouting “Shame On You! Shame On You!” over and over again. You can literally see the painful truth of those words cutting the resolve of the policemen and forcing them backwards.

Glenn Greenwald’s post at Salon says this far better than I can, but there are undeniable conclusions one can draw from this incident. The main thing is that the frenzied dissolution of due process and individual rights that took place under George Bush’s watch, and continued uncorrected even when supposed liberal constitutional lawyer Barack Obama took office, has now come full circle and become an important element to the newer political controversy involving domestic/financial corruption and economic injustice.

This rather long Matt Taibbi blog was posted over at Rolling Stone magazine on Tuesday...and it's Roy Stephens first of many offerings in this column. The link is here.

The cost to protect Bank of America Corp. debt surged to a record and a benchmark gauge of U.S. corporate credit risk climbed to a seven-week high as Europe's sovereign fiscal crisis intensified.

The Markit CDX North America Investment Grade Index of credit default swaps, which investors use to hedge against losses on company debt or to speculate on creditworthiness, added 5.9 basis points to a mid-price of 146.4 at 4:57 p.m. in New York, the highest since Oct. 4, according to Markit Group Ltd.

The contagion is obviously spreading to the U.S. now...and it won't be long before the world's entire financial system is infected. There is no way out of this except via the printing press, or its electronic equivalent.

This Bloomberg story was filed on Wednesday afternoon...and I thank Elliot Simon for sending it along. The link is here.

Germany has been considered a safe haven of financial stability amid the ongoing euro crisis -- but that may be changing. Growing mistrust from investors seems apparent after what has been described as a "disastrous" government bond auction on Wednesday. Just two-thirds of the German bonds sold, leaving analysts concerned but not panicked.

Roy Stephens sent me this piece on Wednesday...and it's posted at the German website spiegel.de. The link is here.

The euro zone is stuck in a double crisis. On the one hand, investors are no longer interested in purchasing sovereign bonds. On the other, banks with such bonds on their books are being treated with extreme caution. A massive financial crisis threatens -- and it could be worse than the last.

Germany's top banker is not alone with his concern about the problem. The entire financial world is in turmoil this autumn. Once seen as iron-clad investments, state bonds are no longer seen as secure -- particularly since the European Union agreed to a 50 percent debt haircut for Greece in October. It can, warned Andreas Schmidt, president of the Association of German Banks, earlier this week, no longer be taken for granted that countries can turn to the capital markets to finance their budgets.

This story was posted in spiegel.de on Wednesday...and is another Roy Stephens offering. The link is here.

French appeals for Germany to sanction extra powers for the European Central Bank have been firmly rejected, despite warnings from politicians, economists and even the Vatican that it is the only way of "averting a catastrophe".

Angela Merkel was unmoved by another roller-coaster day that saw Portuguese debt being downgraded to junk status, Italian bond yields pushed into the bail-out zone, and doubts cast over France's AAA rating: the German Chancellor refused to allow the ECB to become Europe's lender of last resort.

Once again I thank Roy Stephens for sending me this story. It's from The Telegraph late last night...and the link is here.

The ascension of Mario Monti to the Italian prime ministership is remarkable for more reasons than it is possible to count. By replacing the scandal-surfing Silvio Berlusconi, Italy has dislodged the undislodgeable. By imposing rule by unelected technocrats, it has suspended the normal rules of democracy, and maybe democracy itself. And by putting a senior adviser at Goldman Sachs in charge of a Western nation, it has taken to new heights the political power of an investment bank that you might have thought was prohibitively politically toxic.

This is the most remarkable thing of all: a giant leap forward for, or perhaps even the successful culmination of, the Goldman Sachs Project.

And it's not just Mr. Monti.

This story about how the "great vampire squid" is taking over the world, was posted over at the independent.co.uk website last Friday...and I thank Netherlands reader T. Raemdonck for sharing it with us. The link is here.

Under proposals unveiled by the EU executive on Wednesday (23 November), while formal domestic lawmaking procedures are to remain in place, almost all fiscal policy decisions would be taken out of the hands of national assemblies and delivered up to European civil servants.

The far-reaching proposals instantly provoked accusations of a hollowing out of democracy in Europe - allegations that the commission has angrily dismissed, saying the moves are necessary if the euro is to survive.

Under pressure from markets to deliver tighter economic integration in the eurozone, the EU executive has proposed that governments in member states that use the single currency be forced to submit their budgets to both the commission and the eurogroup of states for vetting - before they are submitted to their own national parliaments.

The New World Order crowd is in one hell of a hurry these days. This story was posted over at the euobserver.com website late Wednesday afternoon. I thank Roy Stephens for digging it up...and the link is here.

Europe's plans for treaty changes to enforce fiscal discipline in the eurozone may fall foul of popular anger in Ireland unless the EU creditor states agree to share more of the pain...as the Irish government has suddenly complicated the picture by requesting debt relief from as a reward for upholding the integrity of the EU financial system after the Lehman crisis, though there is no explicit linkage between the two issues.

"We carried an undue burden for protecting the European banking system from contagion," said finance minister Michael Noonan.

"We are looking at ways to reduce the debt. We would like to see our European colleagues address this in a positive manner. Wherever there is a reckless borrower, there is also a reckless lender," he said, alluding to German, French, British and Dutch banks.

This is an Ambrose Evans-Pritchard offering from Wednesday evening's edition of The Telegraph...and is another Roy Stephens offering. The link is here.

France and Germany will propose changing EU treaties to improve governance of the euro zone, says French president Nicolas Sarkozy.

Mr. Sarkozy spoke after meeting German chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian prime minister Mario Monti in Strasbourg today, their first meeting since Mr. Monti took over amid market panic over Italy’s huge debts.

Mr. Sarkozy said that the three are committed to saving the euro.

This is a story that was posted over at the irishtimes.com website yesterday...and, once again, I thank Roy Stephens for sending it my way. The link is here.

The defining moment was the fiasco over Wednesday's bund auction, reinforced on Thursday by the spectacle of German sovereign bond yields rising above those of the UK.

If you are tempted to think this another vote of confidence by international investors in the UK, don't. It's actually got virtually nothing to do with us. Nor in truth does it have much to do with the idea that Germany will eventually get saddled with liability for periphery nation debts, thereby undermining its own creditworthiness.

But there comes a point in every crisis where the consensus suddenly shatters. That's what has just occurred, and with good reason. In recent days, it has become plain as a pike staff that the lady's [German Chancellor Merkel] not for turning.

Roy Stephens sent me this story from The Telegraph in the wee hours of this morning. It's definitely worth the read...and the link is here.

Andrew Bailey, deputy head of the Prudential Business Unit at the Financial Services Authority (FSA), noted that British banks are not heavily exposed to the eurozone, but said they must prepare for some countries to exit the single currency – or a complete break up.

"We cannot be, and are not, complacent on this front," Mr. Bailey said. "As you would expect, as supervisors we are very keen to see the banks plan for any disorderly consequence of the euro area crisis.

"Good risk management means planning for unlikely but severe scenarios and this means that we must not ignore the prospect of a disorderly departure of some countries from the eurozone.

Roy sent me this story. It was posted yesterday evening in The Telegraph...and the link is here.

A 24-hour strike in Portugal disrupted public transportation and grounded flights after trade unions staged a general strike against austerity measures adopted in return for a $104bn international bailout. More than 470 international flights were cancelled, while about one million commuters had to make their way to work on Thursday without regular bus or train services.

Government offices, school classes, mail deliveries, rubbish collection and other public services were also severely disrupted.

The walkout came amid increasing hardship as Portugal, one of western Europe's vulnerable economies, sheds jobs and sinks deeper into recession. The strike was one of the biggest in Portugal's history, where mass industrial action is rare.

This story, posted over at the aljazeera.com website yesterday, is worth skimming. I thank Roy once again for providing this story...and the link is here.

Asia’s ability to stay resilient amid the West’s economic troubles is slowly waning.

For much of this year, the economies of the Asia-Pacific region appeared to be blissfully isolated from the turmoil in other parts of the world. Asian stock markets fell along with those in the rest of the world, but the region’s economies continued to power ahead.

Within the last few weeks, however, cracks have emerged in the region’s mighty economies, and analysts and policy makers have become more concerned about the painful disruption that could spill into Asia as the situation in Europe continues to deteriorate and the United States’ growth remains subdued.

This story was filed from Hong Kong on Wednesday...and was posted in The New York Times. I thank reader Phil Barlett for sharing it with us...and the link is here.

With no end to the eurozone debt crisis in sight, there has also been no end to the stream of possible solutions. The latest involves using gold as collateral.

With eurozone central banks holding some 64% of the world's gold reserves, they'd have the heft to back that up.

And there is some precedent, though that was largely during the pre-euro era. So it is unclear what legal hurdles might need to be overcome to satisfy all 17 euro-area nations.

But assuming those challenges could be addressed, experts see it as a real win-win possibility.

This cnn.com story was posted on Wednesday. It's another Roy Stephens offering...and this one's worth reading. The imbedded photo is really great eye candy as well...and the link is here.

There isn't enough money in the world to bail out all the financial institutions and countries that need rescuing, Sprott Asset Management CEO Eric Sprott told King World News last night, and as a result the new financial crisis will be worse than the one three years ago.

I thank Chris Powell for writing the introduction...and the link to this must read KWN blog is here.

CBS reports: “The U.S. Embassy in Damascus urged its citizens in Syria to depart “immediately,” and Turkey’s foreign ministry urged Turkish pilgrims to opt for flights to return home from Saudi Arabia to avoid traveling through Syria.”

Military analyst Stratfor reports [as summarized over at zerohedge.com]: For the first time in many months, [the aircraft carrier] CVN 77 George H.W. Bush has left its traditional theater of operations just off the Straits of Hormuz, a critical choke point, where it traditionally accompanies the USS Stennis, and has parked… right next to Syria.

This short must read story was posted over at washingtonblog.com...and it's another Roy Stephens offering. The link is here.

Earlier today, we presented the latest developments in the escalating possibility of an imminent air (and potentially land) campaign targeting Syria by the "western world", a move that would infuriate not only Iran, but also Russia and China, both of which have made it clear they would not sit idly by and let such an "aggression" stand. Now it is Russia's turn to retaliate.

The zerohedge.com piece from yesterday was sent to me by Australian reader Wesley Legrand...and it's certainly worth your time as well. The link is here.

The Trends Journal has uncovered critical information that – in light of the MF Global bankruptcy – casts doubt on the fitness of CME Group to serve as a trustworthy derivatives and commodities exchange, and on the credibility of its Executive Chairman, Terence Duffy.

Not only has the scandalous MF Global bankruptcy (the eighth-largest in US history) wreaked financial havoc on thousands of individuals, it has single-handedly destroyed faith in the commodity markets. CME's reputation as the financial Rock of Gibraltar, upon which the commodity markets are anchored, has now been undermined. By its recent actions, CME's claim of being committed to guaranteeing the transactions undertaken by its members has been called into question.

This very short piece was also sent to me by Roy Stephens...and it's posted over at lewrockwell.com. The link is here.

Eric posted this John Embry blog on his website on Monday...and I posted it in my this column on Tuesday. Eric sent me the audio interview early on Wednesday afternoon...and you're getting it on Friday, so some of the info in it is a little dated, but it's still worth listening to. The link to the KWN blog is here.

The Royal Canadian Mint's retail gold fund is an unheralded success.

Since the books opened three weeks ago, the initial public offering has raised $600 million. That technically makes it the largest IPO of the year. However, some may argue that because it's a retail product, you can't compare it to the likes of Gibson Energy Inc. or Parallel Energy Trust.

The Mint issued exchange-traded receipts that offered the buyers direct beneficial ownership of gold with no intermediaries, such as an asset manager or counterparty. The ETRs will be listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange in Canadian and U.S. dollars.

This is all very impressive, but this new gold fund is backed by unallocated gold. You won't find a list of good delivery bars on the website of this fund.

This story was in the Wednesday edition of Toronto's Globe and Mail newspaper. The link is here.

This interview took place on Monday, but it's still a must listen in my opinion, as James rallies the troops. Eric sent it to me late last night. The link is here.

GoldMoney founder and GATA consultant James Turk posted new commentary over at his fgmr.com website late on Wednesday.

"There are a number of common misconceptions about the gold confiscation foisted on the American people by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1933. Most of these have been offered as justification for FDR’s nefarious deed, and over time have endured to become urban legends."

"For example, perhaps the biggest and most enduring myth is that FDR had to confiscate gold because it was needed to back the dollar, which was still defined as 23.22 grains of fine gold, i.e., $20.67 per ounce. What the propagators of this popular myth conveniently ignore is basic math."

This most excellent short essay is a must read...and I thank Swiss reader B.G. for sending it to me early yesterday morning. The link is here.

In what could be a critical turning point for the silver market, billionaire Eric Sprott, Chairman of Sprott Asset Management, informed King World News that he is writing a letter to silver producers requesting that they store their money in silver, rather than in cash at banks.

Put it into silver, it’s a way better asset than having a bank deposit that pays zero interest rate and you take all of the risk of the bank on. You know if enough people accept that thinking, I mean, at the margin, you bring all of those buyers in [to silver], who knows where the price is going to go? But it won’t bear any relationship to where it is today.”

Eric King sent me this blog late last night...and my jaw hit the floor when I read the title. Give 'em hell, Eric! The link to the KWN blog is here. When the audio interview is available, I'll be posting it.